Emotional tributes as world recalls sinking of Lusitania

HISTORY

Jill Forward passanger Queen Victoria with a photo of her Grandfather William Affleck Anderson who died on baord pictured at the Lusitania centenary commemoration hosted by Port of Cork & Cunard in Cobh, Co Cork.

Members of Cobh Community pictured watching wreaths laying at the graves of Lusitania victims in the Old Church Cemetery, Cobh Co Cork. Port of Cork & Cunard commissioned the erection of glass headstones for the centenary commemoration.

British liner the 'Lusitania', which was sunk off Kinsale on the Irish coast by a German U-boat in 1915.

George Harrisson Second Engineer of Queen Victoria whose Great Grandfather who was also a Engineer survived on baord the Lusitania.

Lucy Rose Finnegan and her mum Susan Forde watch as the Irish Flag is raised pictured at the Lusitania centenary commemoration hosted by Port of Cork & Cunard in Cobh, Co Cork.

PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins urged the world never to forget the terrible lessons of the RMS Lusitania tragedy in World War I and to cherish peace while supporting diplomacy.

President Higgins was speaking as almost 10,000 people joined with dignitaries from the United States, UK and Germany in Cobh, Co Cork to mark the centenary of the sinking of the Cunard flagship on May 7, 1915.

A total of 1,198 people died when the liner sank in just 18 minutes off the Cork coast after being struck by a torpedo from the German submarine, U-20. Just over 700 people survived.

HORROR

"The importance of recalling the horror of war is that it should press us all to cherish and nurture peace, to defend the role of diplomacy, and seek to have it extended to achieve peaceful resolution of conflicts," President Higgins said.

Descendants of victims and survivors fought back tears at the Cork ceremonies.

Cunard second engineer, George Harrison (30), revealed his great-grandfather, George Little, was a third engineer on RMS Lusitania in 1915.

"While he survived the sinking, he contracted pleurisy from exposure in the sea and that was a factor in his death a few years later," he said.

George said the wreath laying over the wreck site was "very emotional for everyone".

UK resident, Jill Power- Forward, lost her grandfather, William Affleck-Anderson.

"He left two children aged just four and two years, so it had an enormous impact on the whole family," she said.